List of former United States citizens who relinquished their nationality

This is a list of notable United States citizens who voluntarily relinquished their nationality. It includes only people who completed the process of relinquishment. The main list excludes public figures who may have indicated their intent to do so, but never formally completed the process; see below for a list of such cases. This list also excludes those who were involuntarily stripped of their citizenship.

Contents

List

Key of reasons To take or run for a position in a foreign government. Spouses of foreign heads of state are included in this category. To naturalize as a citizen of a foreign country, or to retain citizenship in a foreign country disallowing dual citizenship. To protest U.S. policies or actions Other or unclear reasons

Barak-Erez was born to Israeli parents in the U.S., and later returned to Israel with them, where she grew up and attended Tel Aviv University. She was named a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel in 2012, which required her to give up any foreign citizenship she held.[6][7]

Bilzerian, a writer and professional poker player, is a native of Tampa, Florida and the son of corporate takeover specialist Paul Bilzerian. Dissatisfied with the U.S. government's treatment of his father during his arrest and trial for market manipulation in the early 1990s and subsequent bankruptcy proceedings throughout the 2000s, and concerned over the direction of the country during the presidency of George W. Bush, Bilzerian emigrated from the United States and sought citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis.[9][10]

Born in Jamaica, Brown-Burke moved to the U.S. in 1986 and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1995, but two years later decided to return to Jamaica.[15] She got involved in Kingston local politics with the People's National Party in the 2000s.[16] She moved from local to national politics in January 2012 with her appointment as Deputy President of the Senate of Jamaica, and renounced her U.S. citizenship to take up the position.[15]

Russian-born film and stage actor; held dual Swiss and U.S. citizenship until 1965, when he renounced his American citizenship[17][unreliable source?] for tax reasons; he had lost his tax exemption as an American resident abroad by working too long in the United States and would have been bankrupted by what he owed in taxes and penalties.[18]

Born in Los Angeles in 1982 to Jackie Chan and Lin Feng-Jiao, Chan spent most of his childhood in Hong Kong. He attended college in the U.S., but dropped out to return to Hong Kong.[22] He made his entertainment industry debut there in 2004.[23] He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2009 and became a PRC citizen, earning him praise in Chinese media for bucking the trend of Chinese actors obtaining Singaporean or other foreign passports.[24]

A native of Singapore, Chan-Palay studied at Smith University in Massachusetts, graduating in 1965. She and then-husband Sanford Palay did seminal research in neuroscience in the 1970s; however, they later divorced. Chan-Palay moved to Switzerland and became a member of the faculty of the University of Zurich in 1989.[25][26]

A native of Belgrade, Princess Elizabeth lived in the U.S. during her marriage to American clothier Howard Oxenberg, with whom she had a daughter, American actress Catherine Oxenberg. She moved to London after her marriage to Oxenberg ended, and married Briton Neil Balfour.[37] Now living in Serbia, she is a political activist and one-time candidate for the presidency of Serbia. She renounced U.S. citizenship in 2012 and is listed in the Federal Register under her civil name Elizabeth Karageorgevic.[6]

In 1968, Gilliam obtained British citizenship, then held dual American and British citizenship for the next 38 years. In January 2006 he renounced his American citizenship, describing the George W. Bush administration as having created an environment "scarily similar to the Orwellian nightmare" of his 1985 film Brazil.[44][45]

Hovannisyan was born in Brentwood, California to Armenian American parents.[63] He moved to Armenia in 1989, and applied for citizenship there in 1991, which would require him to give up all foreign citizenships upon approval. However, the processing of his application was delayed for nearly a decade; in 2001, Hovannisyan forced the issue by renouncing his U.S. citizenship even without his Armenian citizenship approved, becoming stateless. President Robert Kocharyan then gave in to pressure and issued a decree granting Armenian citizenship to him.[64]

Canadian writer and political activist. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974, and she "later told writer James Howard Kunstler that dual citizenship was not possible at the time, implying that her US citizenship was lost."[71]

Naturalized U.S. citizen born in Poland; renounced his citizenship in 1945 to take up a position as Poland's ambassador to the U.S., in a case believed to be the first of its kind in diplomatic history.[85]

A native of South Carolina, Lee and his wife Sara emigrated to Ghana in 1956 and set up a dental practice, at the head of a wave of African Americans moving to the country to participate in nation-building as its independence neared.[86] He naturalized as a Ghanaian citizen in 1963, renouncing his U.S. citizenship in the process. He remained in Ghana until his death in 2010.[87][88]

Born Eric Lee Sandrin in 1978 to a Korean American mother, he grew up in the Pacific Northwest.[89] His basketball career took him all over the world, including to teams in Luxembourg, Brazil, and Singapore.[89][90] He eventually followed his younger brother to South Korea, and naturalized as a citizen there in 2009 so he could represent his new country at the Asian Games the following year.[91]

Menuhin, a world-famous violinist, was born in New York City in 1916, but lived and worked in Europe for most of his life.[102] He obtained honorary Swiss citizenship in 1970, and British citizenship in 1985, in both cases without relinquishing U.S. citizenship.[102][103] However, he renounced U.S. citizenship on April 7, 1994, according to State Department records.[34][104] He died in Germany in 1999.[102]

Nam was born in Uiseong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea in 1954. He moved to Southern California in 1982, and in 1988 founded New Star Realty, which would grow to become one of the largest real estate agencies serving the Korean American community.[109] He was elected president of the Federation of Korean Associations, USA in 2009.[110] He moved back to South Korea and gave up his U.S. citizenship in 2011 to pursue political ambitions with South Korea's Grand National Party (now Saenuri Party).[111]

Princeton, New Jersey native who served as an ambulance driver in World War II. Concerned by a "climax of nationalism" in the United States, he renounced his citizenship while working in France in 1948 and moved to Allied-occupied Germany, where he took a job as a construction worker and lived on German rations.[112] Fellow renunciant Garry Davis would later mention Noel's actions as inspiration for his own renunciation.[113]

Born Lisa Halaby in Washington, D.C. in 1951, she became a Jordanian citizen upon her marriage to King Hussein of Jordan in 1978. She claims she automatically lost American citizenship by obtaining Jordanian citizenship, but that she did not renounce it. [114]

Daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Emigrated from the U.S. to the United Kingdom in 1952 to join her husband Charlie Chaplin after he was accused of "Communist sympathies" and denied re-entry to the U.S. that year; renounced U.S. citizenship to become a British subject in 1954.[117]

Born in New York City to immigrant parents in 1948, but left the country with them for Bulgaria when they were expelled in 1953; renounced U.S. citizenship in 1974, although political opponents have questioned the validity of his renunciation.[123]

American-born civilian intelligence analyst turned Israeli spy currently serving a life sentence. Pollard gained Israeli citizenship and renounced his United States citizenship. In the event he remains on good behavior, he will be paroled and deported to Israel in 2015.[125][126]

Reed was a dual citizen of Japan and the United States until she turned 22. Japanese law required those who are dual citizens at birth to renounce one citizenship or the other, so she chose Japanese citizenship at the age of 22 in order to continue to represent Japan in ice dancing.[127]

U.S.-born Austrian songwriter and socialite. Moved to London and renounced citizenship to be closer to her husband and family, according to her lawyer. She is listed in the Federal Register under her maiden name Denise Eisenberg.[128]

Born in Jamaica, Robinson lived in the U.S. intermittently from 1978 to 2001. She naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2006, while a sitting member of the Parliament of Jamaica. In 2010, she was removed from her seat by court order, but then renounced her U.S. citizenship and won her seat back in a by-election.[129][130] She is listed in the Federal Register under her maiden name Shahine Fakhourie.

Roengpithya was born in Bangkok, and studied there and in London before coming to the U.S. in the late 1960s, where he worked in integrated circuit design. He returned to Thailand when his mother fell ill, and chose to make his return permanent.[132] He founded the Asian University of Thailand in Chonburi Province in 1993.[133] According to State Department records, he relinquished his U.S. citizenship the following year.[34]

A native of Brazil, Saverin moved to the U.S. as a boy in 1992 and became a U.S. citizen in 1996. While attending Harvard University, he played a role in the founding of Facebook. He moved to Singapore in 2009, and renounced his U.S. citizenship in September 2011.[134][135]

Born in Guatemala, Schakron became a naturalized U.S. citizen at age 15 along with her parents, but later returned to her parents' native Belize, thus holding dual citizenship. She renounced her U.S. citizenship in February 2012 in order to run as a People's United Party legislative candidate in the election the following month.[136]

Shi, a graduate of Tsinghua University in Beijing, went to U.S. for his Ph.D studies at Johns Hopkins University in the 1990s, and naturalized as a U.S. citizen. In 2003, he took up a professorial position at Tsinghua. In 2008, he moved back to China full-time, and the following year became Dean of Tsinghua's School of Life Sciences. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011.[137][138]

Edward Smith was born in the Turks and Caicos Islands but moved to the United States where he obtained US citizenship and lived for 28 years before returning to his birthplace. He became a member of the People's Progressive Party and later a candidate for the Cheshire Hall/Richmond Hill constituency. He renounced his US citizenship to be eligible to run in the Turks and Caicos Islands general election, 2012.[140]

Stern was elected to the Parliament of Jamaica in 2007. In 2009 it came to light that he was a dual citizen of the United States and Jamaica and thus not eligible to sit in Parliament; he then renounced his U.S. citizenship and won back his seat in a by-election.[141][142][143]

Born in the U.S. in 1954, Winkler emigrated to Taiwan in 1977. He renounced U.S. citizenship to naturalize as a Republic of China citizen in 2003. A lawyer and environmental activist, he is involved with the Green Party Taiwan, though due to constitutional limitations he is not eligible to run as a legislative candidate until 10 years after naturalizing.[152][153]

Yang was born in Taiwan. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1977 and worked for a few years in the U.S. before moving to Hong Kong in 1983. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in May 2012 in preparation for taking up a position as the head of the Hong Kong government's newly-created Technology and Communications Bureau.[157]

Born Catherine Claire Chumachenko; wife of the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. She became a Ukrainian citizen in March 2005.[158] Under Ukrainian law, this required her to renounce her prior U.S. citizenship within two years; however, she did not sign the Oath of Renunciation until August 2007, several months past the deadline.[159]

Born in New York City, she emigrated to her parents' native Italy in 1938, and renounced her U.S. citizenship in 1941 to save her family's property from expropriation by Mussolini's government. Best known for her role as an "Axis Sally", reading English-language radio broadcasts aimed at U.S. soldiers during World War II.[161]

Born in Hungary in 1927, Zwack came to the United States with his family in 1948. He returned to Hungary in 1988. After the end of Communist rule, he was named Hungarian ambassador to the United States. He renounced his United States citizenship in 1990 to take up that post.[163]

1988

1990

Too early

Unclear, inaccurate, misreported, or rejected cases

Du Bois, a native of Massachusetts, moved to Ghana in 1961 at age 93 to manage the Encyclopedia Africana project. The U.S. State Department refused to renew his passport while he was living there, so Du Bois elected to become a citizen of Ghana. Some sources claim that he renounced U.S. citizenship, but David Levering Lewis' biography of him states that he did not.[164]

World chess champion Fischer, a native of Chicago, attempted to renounce U.S. citizenship in August 2004 by letter to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo while in detention in Japan on charges of traveling with an invalid passport.[165] However, renunciation oaths must be signed in the presence of a diplomatic officer, meaning Fischer's letter had no effect.[166] He was released after Iceland voted to grant him citizenship; he then moved to Iceland and remained there until his death in 2008.[167]

Born Grace Patricia Kelly, a U.S. citizen. Some sources claim she was required to relinquish her U.S. nationality upon her marriage to the Monegasque Prince Rainier. However, at the time of the birth of her first son, it was reported that the U.S. State Department made a determination that she remained a U.S. citizen, making her son one as well.[168][169]

Johnson was born in New York City, but returned to the U.K. with his parents soon after and was raised there. He would go on to become Member of the U.K. Parliament. In 2006, he was prevented from traveling to the U.S. because his British passport showed a U.S. birthplace, meaning that he was considered a U.S. citizen and would thus be required to enter the country on a U.S. passport. Johnson was furious and announced that he would renounce U.S. citizenship.[170] However, in a June 2012 appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, he stated that he is an American ("jointly") and technically remained eligible to become president of the United States.[171] His name has never appeared in the Federal Register.

Lee was born in Taiwan and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991. She held elected public office in Taiwan since 1994, but resigned in 2009 due to accusations that she had maintained dual citizenship.[172] She claims to have relinquished U.S. citizenship by taking up office in 1994;[note 2] however, she did not file a request for determination of loss of nationality at the time or by 2009.[173][174][175]

Mari Brás, a native of Puerto Rico and an advocate for its independence, renounced U.S. citizenship in Venezuela in 1994 and received a Certificate of Loss of Nationality; he then returned to Puerto Rico. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico held in 1997 that he still had the right to vote in elections there.[176] However, in 1998, the State Department reversed its earlier recognition of Mari Brás' renunciation, and stated that he remained a U.S. citizen.[177]

O'Keefe, a former U.S. Marine, was born in 1969. He attempted to renounce U.S. citizenship in Vancouver and the Netherlands in the early 2000s, but was rejected because State Department officials concluded that he would return to the United States.[178][note 3] He also later set his passport on fire; however, this is not one of the seven methods of relinquishing citizenship listed in INA 349(a) and so had no legal effect, as a letter from the State Department informed him.[178] O'Keefe describes himself as a world citizen and states that has acquired Irish and Palestinian citizenship.[179] He also holds a World Passport issued by the World Service Authority.[178]

Rich, a native of Belgium, came to the U.S. in 1941 at age 11 and later naturalized there.[180] He fled the U.S. in 1983 the midst of allegations that he had traded with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions, and obtained Spanish citizenship later that year.[181] Rich maintained that he had relinquished U.S. citizenship, but a U.S. appeals court ruled in 1991 that he remained a citizen because he had never formally informed the State Department of his relinquishment.[182][183] Rich remains a citizen of Spain and Israel as well. Despite having been pardoned, he has never returned to the U.S.[184]

Taylor was born in London to American parents in 1932. In October 1965, she signed an oath of renunciation at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, but with the phrase "abjure all allegiance and fidelity to the United States" struck out. State Department officials declared that her renunciation was invalid due to the alteration. Taylor signed another oath without the alteration in October 1966.[185] She applied for U.S. citizenship again in 1977 during then-husband John Warner's Senate campaign.[186][187]

Notes

^The column "Federal Register" refers to whether and when the former citizen's name was published. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, new provisions were added to the Internal Revenue Code (namely, 26 U.S.C.§ 6039G) to require that the IRS publish the names of persons losing U.S. citizenship. Publication began in 1997. "Too early" refers to people who renounced before this law came into effect; an asterisk indicates that Federal Register data for the quarter in which the person renounced has not yet been released.

^INA 349(a)(4) (8 U.S.C.§ 1481(a)(4)) states that "accepting, serving in, or performing the duties of any office, post, or employment under the government of a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof, after attaining the age of eighteen years if he has or acquires the nationality of such foreign state" is one of the acts by which a U.S. national may lose nationality, if the act is performed voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. nationality.

^As stated in the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual: "Potential renunciants may also express the intention to continue to reside in the United States or its territories and possessions without documentation as aliens. Since this right of residency is a fundamental right that U.S. citizens and nationals possess, potential renunciants who wish to retain this right do not possess the intent necessary for an effective renunciation. Consular officers must not take renunciations from any individual who seeks to retain the right to reside in the United States or one of its territories or possessions." "Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship". Foreign Affairs Manual. United States Department of State. 2012-06-29. http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/115645.pdf. Retrieved 2012-07-18.

^"Encryption Expert Says U.S. Laws Led to Renouncing of Citizenship". The New York Times. 6 September 1998. http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/09/cyber/articles/06encrypt.html.; quote: "Normally, setting up an international company does not require forgoing citizenship in the United States, but Cate's expertise in creating encryption software places him in a special class. If he were to offer any advice to non-U.S. citizens about the encryption work built into his financial transaction software, he would violate U.S. laws, which treat the transfer of such encryption as illegal international arms traffic. These laws apply throughout the world and are intended to stop U.S. citizens from assisting others in developing encryption software."